


With Each Breath, Another

by Trixree



Category: One Piece
Genre: Found Family, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Major Whump, One Piece but if it was sense 8, Sense 8 fusion, i love this dumb pirate family so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:55:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21601810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trixree/pseuds/Trixree
Summary: “Luffy,” his mother says, passing on a name and a blessing all at once. “Oh, my Luffy… You are going to be so loved, I just know it.” She dies with a whisper and a smile on her face.Luffy, only a few minutes old, scrunches up his impossibly tiny little face and begins to cry. And then, like magic, seven other newborns scattered all throughout the seas did exactly the same.(A One Piece/Sense 8 fusion)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 231





	With Each Breath, Another

**Author's Note:**

> I have literally nothing to say for myself. I play really fast and loose with timelines and ages here. Suspend your disbelief.

A squealing baby emerges from the womb, pink with new life. He’s born with nearly a full head of jet black hair and his mother positively delights in the sticky curls, laughing as soon as he’s tucked in her arms. 

(The town doctor murmurs about the complications of the birth, exchanging furtive, worried glances with the wet-nurses. The mother will not live much longer.)

“They’re perfect,” the woman whispers, fat tears rolling down her face. Her newborn squirms in her arms. 

“They?” The doctor says. 

“Oh, aren’t they? All of them, so perfect,” her voice is thick with emotion. 

“Ma’am,” the doctor begins. “You’ve only had one son.” 

As if on cue, the baby opens his gummy mouth and, remarkably—impossibly—begins to  _ laugh _ . Great big peals of shrieking laughter, bubbling out of such a tiny thing... The surprise of it sends the nurses scattering, startled at the sudden noise.

(The woman is so pale now. She won’t have much longer.) 

“Luffy,” she says, lips pressed gently to her son’s head, passing on a name and a blessing all at once. “Oh, my Luffy… You are going to be so loved, I just know it.” 

She dies with a whisper and a smile on her face. 

Luffy, only a few minutes old, scrunches up his impossibly tiny little face and begins to cry. 

* * *

And then, like magic, seven other newborns scattered all throughout the seas did exactly the same. 

* * *

As soon as Zoro is old enough to know he’s not wanted in the village— _ he’s an orphan  _ and he may not be smart, but he understands enough to know what that word means, even if he can’t quite pronounce it yet—he gets up and he leaves. It takes him a week, but he eventually makes it to the dojo. (It would have taken him much less time, but. Well. The roads just kept moving around on him.) 

Koushirou nearly pissed himself when he found a child, positively filthy and soaked to the bone with rain, waiting patiently outside on his porch one summer afternoon. He looks to be about the same age as his own daughter and Koushirou frantically ushers the young boy inside. It takes hardly a handful of seconds before Kuina comes rushing into the room, all righteous fury, but barely three feet tall. Usually so shy around strangers, she stalks right up to the strange boy. 

Some recognition seems to pass between the two. 

Kuina sticks out her tongue. “Took you long enough,” she gripes, crossing her arms. 

“I got lost,” the strange boy responds. 

“Typical,” Kuina says. 

“Kuina?” Koushirou questions.  _ They must know each other from the village,  _ he surmises quickly.

“Dad,” Kuina says, not an ounce of comedy to be found in her voice, “This is one of the boys that lives in my head.” 

* * *

The first time Sanji meets one of his siblings—his  _ real  _ siblings, his  _ forever siblings— _ he has just been placed in the dungeon for the very first time. It is dark and cold and he is so, so afraid and so, so alone when suddenly the scent of the mold and the damp fades away and all he can smell is a  _ garden.  _

He tentatively raises his head from between his knees. His eyes are red and swollen from crying but the sunlight he sees is unmistakable. He’s sitting on a cliff overlooking a beautiful blue ocean. Tangerine trees tower above him, their smell is like perfume and spring and sweets all at once. Sanji can  _ feel  _ the sun on his skin, even though he knows he is sat in the dungeon, hidden away beneath his own home. 

“Hi,” a girl says. 

Sanji gasps and turns to his right. Sitting in the sun warmed grass beside him is a girl who looks to be the same age as him. She has the most beautiful orange hair he’s ever seen—orange like all the fragrant tangerines around them—and a face full of freckles and curiosity. 

“My name’s Nami,” she says. “Why are you sad?”

Sanji sniffles, feeling embarrassed, suddenly. “I’m a failure,” he whispers, like a secret, feeling the burn of the words curdle hot and heavy in his gut, where his brothers like to kick him the hardest. 

The pretty girl with the orange hair, Nami, frowns. “That’s stupid,” she says. “Who said that?” 

“My brothers.” 

“They’re stupid,” Nami hisses with all the rage a child can be capable of. “Hey, your eyebrow is funny.” Sanji feels the words like a slap until—”I like it,” Nami finishes, smiling like the warmth of the sun they’re sharing. 

“T-thanks,” he replies. Something tight unwraps a little in his chest. “Where am I?”

“Cocoyashi! I live here with my sister, Nojiko, and Bellemere-san!” Nami radiates pride. “This is our tangerine orchard!” 

“It’s beautiful,” Sanji says. “Where’s… Where’s Cocoyashi?” 

“In the East-Blue!” Nami declares. 

“W-wow…” 

“Vivi said that he had met more of us,” she tells him, incomprehensibly. 

“Who?”

“Vivi! She has the prettiest blue hair and lives in the desert—she’s a real life princess, ya know! She’s in the Grand Line. It’s amazing, I can’t wait for you to meet her.” Nami bowls right over Sanji’s confusion. “Vivi said she’s met me, a boy with a real long nose, and another boy named Luffy so far!” She counts the names off of her fingers, one by one. “Luffy says that he’s met another-another boy with  _ green hair  _ whose name is Zoro, which I think is funny. And  _ Zoro  _ says  _ he’s  _ met a girl named Kuina and he actually went and found her and they live together I think.” 

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. How did I get here?” Sanji asks.

“I didn’t understand at first, either,” Nami says. She leans in close and whispers in his ear. Sanji could swear he feels the warmth of her breath—it smells sticky and sweet like tangerines. “But I'll tell you a secret... We’re magic.” 

* * *

No one believes Usopp when he says that he has friends that live in his head. 

“I can visit them all around the world, in all the places that they live!” He declares. “There’s Luffy in Foosha—that’s also in the East-Blue—and there’s Vivi, she’s a  _ princess  _ and lives in the Grand Line!”

At first, the villagers of Syrup village think his tales are cute.  _ You’re so imaginative,  _ they tell him. But soon, that fondness turns to frustration. 

They call him a liar, but Usopp  _ knows  _ better. 

“I knew you were special the moment you were born,” his mom tells him, holding him in her lap and placing the book she had been reading to the side. (She doesn’t get out of bed much these days. She’s too sick, the doctors say. Her strength is failing her, the doctors say. Usopp is really smart and helpful, though, so he moved all the books closer to her bedside. He’s inventive like that.)

“Tell me again, Mom!” Usopp urges. He’s heard the story a thousand times before, but he likes to hear it again, whenever the townspeople are particularly doubtful. 

“I knew you were so special because I didn’t just feel you come into the world, my love. I felt the life inside of me become eight different parts the moment you came to be. And when you gave your first shout,” she pokes his nose playfully and he erupts in giggles, “I heard all of you cry out at once, just for a moment. A mother always knows these things, my love.” 

“Tell me what we’re called again, Mom,” he pleads. 

“You are  _ sensate,  _ Usopp.” She smiles, smoothing his crazy, curly hair down gently with her hands. 

“There used to be a well known legend about people who share the same soul. They come in sets of eight, all born at the same exact moment. Sometimes they are born very, very far away from each other and sometimes they are born very, very close. And…” she draws out her voice for suspense, like all good story-tellers do, “they have the magic power to see what each other see and feel what each other feel! The legend says that these special groups of eight would awaken to the presence of each other at random—sometimes from birth, sometimes not until they were very old and wise.”

“That means I’m like… extra-special, right?” Usopp cries, eyes gleaming. Usopp has always known about his siblings, ever since he can remember. 

“Yes, my love. So extra-special. Now tell me, who did you visit with today?” 

“Zoro! He’s so glum and serious all the time,” Usopp grumbles. 

Suddenly, “Am not!”

Zoro is both sitting on the end of the bed and _not_ at the same time. It’s like seeing in double, for a moment. 

In an instant, Zoro is with Usopp and his mother in Syrup village, legs dangling off the end of their bed. In the next moment, he and Usopp are standing in a field outside the dojo at night, listening to the cicadas cry and smelling the dew on the grass. It’s dizzying, Usopp thinks, to be in two completely different places at once. He feels both the warmth of the fire in his home and the chill of the night air an ocean away. 

“Are too!” Usopp cries. 

“Is he here now?” His mother asks.

“Yes, and he’s grumpy, as usual. What, did Kuina beat you again?” Usopp has yet to visit with Kuina, but Zoro talks about her a lot, and he feels her presence across their bond, even if they haven't formally met yet.

“Shut up!” Zoro flushes pink, all the way to the tips of his ears. “I’m gonna kick her butt tomorrow, just you wait and see!” 

“Sure you are. And  _ I’m  _ gonna be king of the pirates.” 

They both dissolve into giggles. 

“Nah, that’ll be Luffy, and you know it,” Zoro says. 

He speaks the words in a field in Shimotsuki village under the moonlight. Usopp hears the words all the way from his mother’s bed in Syrup village. They are distant. They are connected. 

Just like magic. 

* * *

All of them connect for the very first time in the very same field a few months later. After a duel, after a defeat, both Zoro and Kuina humming like live-wires, channeling each and every fragment of themselves. All eight of them come together for the very first time. 

“Being a girl doesn’t mean you’re weak!” Zoro-Vivi-Nami cry in unison. “Don’t diminish my accomplishments by saying your victory is meaningless!” Zoro-Luffy-Sanji shout in righteous fury, defensive of Zoro's strength, of his effort,  _ of his dream.  _

“You don’t understand!” Kuina cries, and they all feel her pain, her dejection. It hums through them like a current. 

“G-guys, c’mon,” Coby tries to mediate, his pink hair looking nearly neon under the moonlight. 

Luffy puts a hand over his mouth ( _ not really, but yes-really. They may be a million-kajillion miles away or something, but nothing in the world could stop Luffy from manhandling his siblings when he wants to)  _ and says, “Shh, Coby, let them work it out.” 

When Zoro makes his promise, they all feel the  _ power  _ of his words beneath their skin. 

All around the world, eight young souls cry out in triumph. A dream has been realized tonight. (More are sure to come. There’s a great sea to be found, maps to be drawn, bravery to be discovered, a kingdom to rule, a duty to fulfill, and a straw-hat to be returned.)

Kuina still trips. 

* * *

All across the world, seven children feel their sister die. 

(The only mercy is that her death is swift. There is no pain—only the panic of falling and a sudden, horrible emptiness where there was once another life.) 

* * *

Luffy screams and sobs all night and neither Ace nor Sabo can figure out  _ what the hell is going on.  _

“Luffy, Luffy!” Ace is panicking, but trying to pretend he isn’t. Luffy is a crybaby, sure, but he’s blubbering in these great big agonized sobs that they’ve never  _ seen before.  _ He’s  _ screaming  _ like he’s been stabbed,  _ wailing  _ like he’s been gutted, but there’s no intruder in their tree-house... no blood to be found... no nightmare to soothe away. 

“She’s  _ gone!”  _ Luffy  _ screams,  _ sandwiched tightly between the embrace of his brothers. Sabo and Ace exchange terrified glances. 

“Who? Luffy, who is gone?!” Sabo grips him tight, hoping by some miracle he can squeeze the terror out of the other boy.  _ If I can just hold him close enough,  _ he wishes, desperately,  _ maybe I can make it stop.  _

“Kuina!” He sobs, so much heartbreak bundled into such a small child. 

Ace and Sabo know all about Luffy’s other siblings.  _ Shitty-siblings,  _ Ace calls them.  _ Cause they’re never here.  _ Privately, both of the elder ASL brothers have always suspected that Luffy’s “siblings” were just imaginary friends.  But now? 

This kind of pain can’t be imagined. 

* * *

There are dreams to be realized. There’s a great sea to be found, a masterful map to be drawn, bravery to be discovered, a kingdom to rule, a duty to fulfill, a title to be won, and a straw-hat to be returned. 

But first, there is pain. 

* * *

The Aarlong pirates come to Cocoyashi not long after Kuina’s death. 

Still grieving for the loss of a sister, seven heart-broken children cry out in terrified unison for Bellemere. 

(Aarlong still takes the shot.) 

* * *

Sanji dons a heavy iron mask. No matter how many times he visits Vivi and the warm sands of Alabasta, nothing can chase away the cold of knowing he’s not wanted. 

_ I’m a failure,  _ he thinks. 

(Nami isn’t there to tell him otherwise. She’s getting a tattoo. She’s taking up a mission. She's stealing and swindling and lying and cheating. She ices them out. Like a den-den mushi connection abruptly cut, she closes herself off to them.)

_ I’m going to become something I don’t want to be... a  _ _ pirate,  _ she spoke the title like it was a curse. She pretended not to see the hard set of Luffy’s jaw, pretended not to feel the hurt that bubbled up in him.  _ To do that I have to be alone,  _ she said.  _ Truly alone.  _

Sanji watches a rat scurry across the floor through the slim eye-holes of the cold, metal mask. 

* * *

Usopp’s mother passes away. 

All of them cluster around her bed when the time comes. Seven pairs of watery eyes (even Nami’s, hardened and distant as she has become) and seven pairs of desperate hands reach for her warm, motherly smile in those last moments. 

“Mom,” Usopp sobs, “Please don’t go. Please don’t leave me alone.” 

“Oh, my love,” her voice—faint and strained as it is—is still as clear as day. “You’re never alone. Can’t you feel them?” 

Luffy’s hand goes so tight around Usopp’s that both their knuckles turn white, even oceans apart. 

(The townspeople of Syrup village chalk her final words up to feverish delusion. Simply the madness of a dying woman. Poor, poor Usopp…) 

* * *

Igaram rushes to Vivi’s side when suddenly, with a scream and a sob, the girl collapses to the ground. Like a puppet with its strings suddenly cut, Vivi goes  _ down. Hard.  _

(She’s been in so much pain recently. Igaram worries for her so much...) 

When he makes it to her side, she has bitten clean through her lip. There is so much sadness in her eyes, brimming with tears, but also… there is  _ fury.  _

* * *

Across the world, Sabo is killed. He goes up in flames. 

Ace promises to never die. (And Zoro promises to become stronger, too, standing in spirit with Luffy on the cliff that day.) 

Vivi watches and listens. Quietly, she  _ burns.  _ She will change the world that is hurting her siblings with such cruelty. She knows her privilege. She learned it in the struggle of Nami and her adoptive mother. She learned it in the life Coby has lived, so far from them all. She learned it in Kuina's sadness, in Sanji's isolation. She learned it watching a Celestial Dragon burn her brother's brother alive. 

She will right these wrongs.

She _must._

* * *

One day, Coby and some other orphans are caught rummaging through the trash behind a bar owned by a cruel old man named Jon. Jon shoos them away with a broom, like they’re  _ vermin.  _ He spits after them. It catches Coby on his hollow, sunken cheek. The old man’s spit reeks like tobacco. 

(That night he watches a group of pirates, well fed and laughing, emerge from another bar. They are joking and singing together as they walk through the dark, back to their warm ship full of love and life and comfort and wealth.)

Coby thinks of Luffy and his dream. He thinks of the way it feels to watch Luffy and Ace and train together, he thinks of the way it felt to watch Zoro take up their sister’s sword, the way it felt to watch Nami  _ scream  _ as Bellemere was taken—taken from them  _ all.  _

Coby sneaks onto a ship.

(It flies a flag with the symbol of the seagull.)

* * *

Sanji is free, finally,  _ blessedly free…  _ For the first time in a long time, they are all  _ happy.  _ Even Nami flits around the corners of their collective awareness, opening up the cauterized channels of their connection to one another, just to share in the joy. 

“Sanji!” Luffy cries, smiling ear to ear. “One day, when I set sail, I’m gonna come get you and you’re gonna be the cook on my pirate ship, okay?”

“Okay!” Sanji cheers. 

* * *

Then comes the rock. 

They all eat for him, pretending like if they can just take one more bite, maybe it can feed Sanji, too. It is his ability to visit them that keeps him sane. It is the comfort of their lives that allows him to cherish his own, for however much longer he gets to have it. Meanwhile, Luffy eats and eats and eats until it hurts. 

(It doesn't help.) 

* * *

The day comes when Luffy (and Zoro and Nami and Sanji and Vivi and Coby and Usopp) turn seventeen. 

In this lifetime, Luffy does not just set sail with a straw hat and a dream. He sets sail with the names of his siblings on his tongue and the weight of _their_ dreams already settled on his shoulders. 

Luffy inhales, breathing the salty sea air, taking it deep into his lungs. 

Scattered all across the world, his family does the same. And with each breath… comes another.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Come find me (and cry with me) on [tumblr](https://trixree.tumblr.com/)


End file.
